“Little Green Bag“ is a 1969 song written by Dutch musicians, Jan Visser and George Baker (credited as Hans Bouwens), and recorded by the George Baker Selection at the band’s own expense.
Ironically, the track’s original title was “Little Greenback“ (a reference to the US dollar), but the single’s label was mispressed with the erroneous title, “Little Green Bag“ (which some people interpreted as ’bag of marihuana’), leading to its acceptance as both the song title for all subsequently released versions of the single throughout the world as well as the song title on the group’s 1970 debut album also titled Little Green Bag. However, “little greenback“ is the actual lyrical phrase sung throughout the track.
The song’s single peaked at No. 9 on the Dutch Top 40 singles chart and No. 3 in Belgium. In the United States, the single reached No. 16 in the summer of 1970 on the Cashbox magazine chart and No. 21 on the US Billboard Top 100 chart. In 1992, when the song was used in the Quentin Tarantino film, Reservoir Dogs, it became an international cult classic. Also in 1992, the song reached No. 1 in Japan after being used in a Japanese whiskey commercial.
George Baker in 2011.